(Prelims Prep. Prominence) 26Th December 2018

Connect to Current -Daily Current Capsules (Prelims Prep. Prominence) 26th December 2018

India's Longest Railroad Bridge In Assam's Bogibeel across river Brahmaputra

Relevance in – Prelims ( facts) and Mains GS Paper III ( Infrastructure development and Security challenges)

What’s the NEWS  The 4.94 km Bogibeel, the fourth bridge across river Brahmaputra inaugurated by Prime Minister

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Know all about Bogibeel Bridge

 Bogibeel Bridge in Assam, which happens to be Asia's second longest railroad connector, has a lifespan of around 120 years, authorities said

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today opened the Bogibeel railroad bridge in Assam, billed as India's longest railroad bridge. Its foundation was laid in 1997.

 THE FIVE-KILOMETRE STRUCTURE SPANS THE WATERS OF THE MIGHTY BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER.  Bogibeel bridge will connect Assam's Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts, bordering Arunachal Pradesh.

 It will cut the travel time between the two points by four hours and help avoid a 170-km detour.

 With its proximity to the China border, the bridge also has tremendous significance for India's defence and has been built strong enough to support the movement of tanks and even fighter jet landings.

 Designed like a bridge that links Sweden and Denmark, it is India's only fully-welded bridge for which European codes and welding standards were followed. A fully welded bridge has a low maintenance cost

 The 4.9 km-long bridge was constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,900 crore - exceeding its initial budget of about Rs. 3,200 crore and originally planned length of 4.31 km.

 The foundation stone of the project was laid by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on January 22, 1997, while work began on April 21, 2002 under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. December 25 happens to be Vajpayee's birth anniversary.

Prelims practise question

Which of the following bridges are the on river Brahmaputra 1. Naranarayan Setu 2. Kolia Bhomora Setu 3. Bhupen Hazarika Setu 4. Bogibeel Setu

Choose the correct from the option

a. 1 only b. 2 only c. All of the above d. None of the above

Chabahar Port The first meeting of the follow-up committee for implementation of the trilateral Chabahar agreement

Relevance in – Prelims, G.S Mains Paper II & III ( bilateral relations, infrastructure development(port)

What’s the NEWS  The first meeting of the Follow-up Committee for implementation of the Trilateral Chabahar Agreement between India, Afghanistan and Iran was held in the port city of Chabahar in Iran Know about the highlights and outcomes of the trilateral meeting  India Ports Global Limited company opened its office and took over operations at the at Chabahar on this occasion.  External Affairs Ministry said in a release that Positive and constructive discussions were held on full operationalization of the Trilateral Transit Agreement.  They agreed on the routes for the trade and transit corridors between the three countries.  It was agreed to finalise at the earliest the Protocol to harmonize transit, roads, customs, and consular matters.

Important outcomes of the meet are  There was consensus on the routes for the trade and transit corridors between the three countries.  It was agreed to finalise the protocol to harmonise transit, roads, customs, and consular matters at the earliest.  It was agreed to allow cargo movement at Chabahar using Transports Internationaux Routiers Convention provisions. What is Internationaux Routiers Convention  It is a multilateral treaty which aims to simplify and harmonise the administrative formalities of international road transport.  It was concluded in Geneva on 14 November 1975.  India is a party to the treaty.  To promote and popularise the potential of Chabahar port  Constituting a study to determine measures to make the route attractive, decrease logistic costs and pave the way for smooth operationalisation of the Chabahar Agreement. Know about India Ports Global Private Limited  India Ports Global Private Limited is a private registered company and classied as Union Government Company. It is involved in Sea and coastal water transport.

Defence

What’s the NEWS  The Indian Navy has been commissioned a naval hospital ship, the INHS Sandhani at Naval station Karanja in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. Know all about INHS Sandhani  The hospital has its origins as a small primary health care unit established in 1955.  The Naval station Karanja expanded rapidly over the last couple of decades, there was a need to develop the station’s healthcare services.

 The hospital has been expanded from a 16-bed facility to a 30-bed hospital. The hospital is capable of providing treatment in the fields of General Medicine, Surgery, Gynaecology, Anaesthesia, Paediatrics and dental services to naval personnel at the station

 INHS Sandhani is the tenth one commissioned by the Indian Navy.

 The Navy had earlier commissioned its ninth hospital ‘INHS Navjivani’ at the Indian Naval Academy in Kerala’s Ezhimala

Indonesia’s volcano trigger tsunami

Anak Krakatoa eruption likely to have set off underwater landslide

Relevance in – Prelims and Mains GS Paper I and III ( Important geophysical phenomena and Disaster Management)

What’s the NEWS  At least 222 people were killed and several hundreds injured when a tsunami struck the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra following a underwater landslide, believed to have been caused by the erupting Anak Krakatoa volcano. The tsunami struck, almost without warning,

Know about Anak Krakatoa

 Anak Krakatoa, an active volcano roughly halfway between Java and Sumatra, has been spewing ash and lava for months. It erupted again after and the tsunami struck  Unlike those caused by earthquakes, which usually trigger alert systems, volcano-triggered tsunamis give authorities very little time to warn residents.  The disaster was most likely caused by a moderate eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait that triggered either a large and very fast moving flow of molten rock into the sea or a sudden and massive submarine landslide — both would displace large amounts of water, resulting in a tsunami.  Evidence suggested that a section of the volcano collapsed and slid into the ocean, triggering a tsunami

 The country is among the most disaster-hit nations as it straddles the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plates collide.

Reason why the tsunami struck, almost without warning  Neither scientists at the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), which runs the state-of-the-art Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS), nor the alert systems available at Indonesia could provide an early warning to prevent the disaster at islands of Java and Sumatra in the absence of any warnings from the oceanic buoys, tide gauges or quake sensors.  It was a localised tsunami, which occurred due to a volcanic eruption, leading to mudslide on the ocean bed.  As there was no earthquake, the sensors could not catch anything. There is no technology available to detect tsunamis occurring due to mudslides closer to the shore  It is very difficult to handle localised tsunamis and far more easier to detect one which affects the entire ocean basin on a larger area.

What is ‘Strike slip’ quake

 “It was a ‘strike slip’ earthquake where two land masses move one against the other parallelly which usually do not cause much displacement of water in the sea and hence, the tsunami too will not be of that much force.  However, due to one portion of the island dipping into the sea and being an enclosed bay area, the tsunami impact was greater

Know all about tsunami

 Tsunami are waves caused by a sudden movement of the ocean due to earthquakes, landslides on the sea floor, land slumping into the ocean, major volcanic eruptions or large meteorite impacts.  Most tsunami are caused by large earthquakes at the sea floor, when large slabs of rock are forced to move past each other suddenly causing the overlying water to move.  The resulting wave moves outwards and away from this event.  Underwater landslides too can cause tsunami, and so can land which slumps into the ocean.  Landslides happen when slopes become too steep to withstand gravity. Large meteorite impacts that occur at sea can trigger tsunami too.  Less common are tsunamis initiated by volcanic eruptions.  These occur in several ways: If an underwater volcano erupts, the hot lava may heat the surrounding water quickly and explosively.  Massive flows of volcanic debris such as ash can travel down the side of a volcano and into the ocean, pushing water outwards.  The top of an underwater volcano may collapse downwards, so that the overlying water also drops.  Indonesia was struck by a volcanic tsunami on Dec. 22, 2018  It was triggered by the continued volcanic eruptions of Anak Krakatau.

Information Technology

Relevance in – Prelims and Mains (GS Paper III) Awareness in the field of I.T

What’s the NEWS  The government has sought public comments on the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act that seek to make it mandatory for platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter to trace “originator” of “unlawful” information, while also removing such content within 24 hours after being notified. What’s the need of bringing that clause  It pointed out that a number of lynching incidents were reported in 2018 mostly owing to fake news being circulated through WhatsApp and other social media sites. Know about the draft  As per the draft ‘The Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018’ released , the intermediary after being notified by the appropriate authority should remove or disable access to unlawful content within 24 hours in the “interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence, on its computer resource without vitiating the evidence in any manner  The intermediary is also expected to preserve such information and associated records for at least 180 days for investigation purposes as against 90 days now.  Following fears of “surveillance and censorship” with the proposed norms, the government clarified that it does not regulate content appearing on social network platforms.

Centre – State Relation Central government’s State startup Ranking Report, 2018

Relevance in – Prelims and Mains (G.S Paper II ) Government Policies and intervention

Know about the state ranking  The report says that Gujarat, which claimed the top spot, should mentor Maharashtra.  The report released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)  Andhra Pradesh was the first State in the country to announce a startup policy in 2014, following directions from the Centre to all States. While other States followed suit subsequently, Maharashtra announced its startup policy only in 2018.

SOURCES – PIB, The Hindu, Livemint articles